1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interactive graphic recognition and data processing system capable of processing various graphics data by the use of computers and achieving automation and labor saving in drawing management.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the recent rapid advancement in the computer graphics technology, such work has come to be automated as extracting one's desired data from various data described in a drawing, such as topographical data, building data, road data, river data, drainage data, transmission line-electric pole data, and processing the data by the use of a computer for managing the same as specific data. The necessity for automatic performance of such recognition and data processing of graphics is becoming larger and larger with increased complexity of urban structure and diversification of city information. Various data as described above from a complex drawing or map are classified into specific fields and desired data picked up therefrom are being utilized for city development project, building planning, and so forth.
As an example of the above described interactive graphics recognition and data processing system hitherto known is one that is described in the computer graphics magazine, "PIXEL", March, 1984.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a prior art interactive graphic recognition and data processing system, wherein the graphic recognition and data processing apparatus has such components connected with a computer 6 as a graphic analyzer 1 provided with the function for inputting topographical data directly from an aerial photograph or the like, a digitizer 2 for inputting contents of a facility drawing with city facilities such as water supply and drainage, electric power, communications, or gas supply described therein, a tablet 3 for inputting, similarly to the digitizer 2, contents of the facility drawing, a CRT 4 as the graphic display device with which the operator is enabled to achieve communication with the system, and a hard copying machine 5 as an output unit. To the computer 6 are also connected a magnetic tape 7 and a magnetic disk 8 as memory media, as well as a printer 9 and a plotter 10.
Operations of the interactive graphic recognition and data processing system of the above described construction will be described below taking as an example the case where contents described in the facility drawing of FIG. 2 are input. The facility drawing of FIG. 2 is for describing waterworks such as water piping, and therein, three groups of pipes P1, P2, and P3 classified by bore, material, or the like, for example, are indicated by triple solid lines, single solid lines, and broken lines, respectively. Also, as to valves, three groups of valves V1, V2, and V3, classified by type, material, or the like are indicated by respective symbol marks. This facility drawing has been stored in a file since the waterworks were designed and executed.
In the past, the work for registering, as data base, the facility symbols for pipes P1, P2, P3, valves V1, V2, V3, manholes, and others constituting the waterworks drawn in the above described facility drawing, and the attributive data annexed to these facility symbols, bore, material, etc. of a pipe, for example, was conducted in the following manner. The operator, based on a topographical drawing made out by the graphic analyzer 1 of FIG. 1, first input positional data and attributive data of the facility symbols drawn in the facility drawing manually with the digitizer 2 or tablet 3. That is, the facility drawing was attached to the tablet 3 and the above mentioned topographical drawing was displayed on the CRT 4 as a graphic display device, and thus, the positional data and attributive data relative to the facility symbols were input with the digitizer 2 and tablet 3, with the display watched for confirmation during the inputting process. The reason why the system is called "interactive" is that the operator inputs various data and proceeds with formation of the data base through confirming the facility drawing attached to the tablet with the displayed picture on the CRT 4.
According to the prior art interactive graphic recognition and data processing system, however, there were some problems.
Firstly, since the operator input positional data and attributive data of the facility symbols through comparison of the facility drawing attached to the tablet 3 with the displayed picture on the CRT 4, and that manually, it took a vast amount of labor and time specifically when enormous volume of attributive data were to be input, and the efficiency of the work of making out a graphic data base was thereby greatly impaired.
And secondly, since manual work had to be continued for a long time, it was impossible to prevent completely the occurrence of errors in inputting operations and therefore the reliability on the completed data base was considerably lowered.